I finally got into Cataclysm and with it, over 800gb of in game footage that I have to somehow squeeze into these tiny ten minute segments. The first piece of coverage I'm offering up is a walkthrough of the Worgen starting zone. Besides all the bareback riding, missed opportunities for good Twilight jokes (is there such thing?), and epic phasing abuse, Blizz seems to have taken a completely different approach to creating these zones than what we are used to.

Think Westfall... probably 80% of the quests are centered at Sentinel Hill, Gilneas is the complete opposite. I found myself doing 2-3 quests at each outpost/abandoned house/street corner before moving on to the next mini-hub. This was cool and all, but I found that (besides Grandma Wahl) in the end, I didn't really care about any of them. I mean, Ill never forget Mankrik, Jitters, the fat drunk in Westfall hills, but these guys? Who cares!

*OMG SPOILER ALART!11* It's not like I'm going to see them again anyways...

I know that you all have been desperately missing the silky sound of my voice, so I spent a few minutes with the folks over at Puggernaut, doing an interview for their weekly podcast!

If you're not already familiar, Puggernaut is a community of PUG raiders across a bunch of different servers, who use the Puggernaut site to arrange runs together. They also do a weekly podcast called Onward!, and this week it would seem I am their special guest.

If you're interested in taking a listen, pop on over to their podcast page, and take a listen!

Right now, Allakhazam is giving away a big stack of Cataclysm beta keys! All you have to do is go to the thread in their forums and post what you're looking forward to the most in Cataclysm, and on Monday the ZAM team will pick winners from among the posters!

They have 50 keys to give away—and don't worry, both us here at Wowhead and the guys at TankSpot will have some of our own to give out shortly.

PS: Blizzard has notified us that they're having a little trouble with the activation process. The keys are good, but it may be a day or two before they actually activate your account properly.

PPS: Remember, if you're a Premium member, you already have a ZAM account! If you signed up through Wowhead, your username will be <Wowhead username>|WH. Just use the "forgot password" tool at ZAM if you don't remember your password!

In the recent Cataclysm beta build the new Guild UI has been partially enabled. The new Guild UI is only available by typing /groster currently, but presumably will have it's own menu option in the future.

Inside you'll start off with the revamped roster list. Several new panels have been added to the roster, with the default panel displaying level, class, name and last zone the player was in. A little drop down at the top will let you switch to the other two panels: Guild Status and Professions. The Guild Status panel is pretty much exactly the same as the one we currently see in-game. The real nice part about the new roster is the addition of the all-new Professions panel! The list allows you to see who has what profession, and then open up a second window to see all the patterns you have within the guild, and to view who has them.

Check out an extensive visual tour of the new Guild UI after the break! Also, be sure to check out our recent Guild Perks blog for a full rundown of all the interesting new benefits you can earn by being in a guild!

In another move to provide more account security for players, Blizzard has instituted a new requirement: users with authenticators will now have to enter their authenticator code when posting on the forums. This will occur the first time you login to the forums, and every now and then after that login.

For those who still don't have an authenticator, you can still get one! The Authenticator keyfobs are currently available in the Blizzard Store, or you can get one for your iPhone or iPod Touch in the iTunes Store for free. They even have free ones for Android enabled devices available in the Android Marketplace.

As a part of our ongoing dedication to account security, players who utilize authenticators on their account will now be asked to enter it upon their first time logging into the forums, and then periodically thereafter. By ensuring that, even if their account is compromised, without the attached authenticator their login credentials can’t be used. This additional security layer helps to better protect players in all services accessed by logging in with their account and password.

We’d like to urge all players who don’t already use one to please consider attaching an authenticator to help protect themselves and their accounts. Information on how to obtain an authenticator as well as additional account security information can be found at: http://www.battle.net/security/

In a recent Cataclysm beta build Blizzard introduced new raid frames, to allow better testing (since there are no new raids enabled) they have enabled them as party frames. The new raid frames are vastly different from the live version. Taking some design aspects of popular addons like Grid I believe Blizzard has designed raid frames that I personally might not have to use an addon for!

Also added in the newest build, Reforging has finally made its appearance. Performed by Highborne Thaumaturges in the major cities, reforging allows you take secondary stats on your armor and convert them to another secondary stat. An example used by the in-game thaumaturges is, if you have an item that increases hit rating but you would rather it increase your haste rating you can convert the hit to haste for a price.

Unfortunately we are unable to test reforging to get more exact information, as it is currently bugged!

So not only do we have a ton of spell and talent updates for you (including the new armor specializations, we've also updated the appearance of the talent calculator to match the in-game interface—right down to the shiny glow effect on the specialization selector!

The new talent calculator interface features icons for the class roles (both on the spec selector and across the header), icons to let you know which trees are still locked and which are available, and more. We've also got a full list of the new skills available, including a complete list of the new armor specializations!

Here's a few more 3D models for you guys - most notable new additions include some amazing seahorses (mounts?!?!) and some extremely interesting new Grim Batol objects! I don't care what anybody else says, those seahorses are some of the best looking models to ever hit the game, hands down. Of course, if we do discover any more cool new models, we'll be sure to keep the blog updated - c'mon Blizzard, one-up the seahorses! You can check out all of our previous model posts filed under the 3D Models tag!

Yet another Cataclysm Closed Beta patch, so soon! Blizzard has released another update to the Cataclysm Beta, and we've got a few new goodies for you guys! As always, you can check out the latest items, NPCs and other recent finds by browsing the Latest Additions page. Check out the latest Cataclysm goodness after the break!

In the next beta build it seems Blizzard is changing the minimum level requirement for entering both Vashj'ir and Mount Hyjal. The quests which allow entrance into the two new zones will be available at level 80, not level 78 as it was previously set at. You will also need to be level 80 to enter Throne of the Tides or Blackrock Caverns

Along with this change mob health is getting double for all 80+ Cataclysm creatures. So a mob that had 16,400 HP now has 31,000 HP!

So now that you've heard these changes, how does the community feel about them?

In the next beta build the minimum level for entering and questing in Mount Hyjal and Vashj’ir will change from level 78 to level 80. All associated creature will have their levels increased to match the new flow.

Additionally, after careful review and consideration we've decided to increase the hit point values of level 80+ Cataclysm creatures. The new hit point values are roughly double their previous values.

Level 80 (OLD) 16400

Level 80 (NEW) 31000

Players will also now need to be level 80 in order to use the Dungeon Finder System for Throne of Tides and Blackrock Caverns.